IrishChai

I personally enjoyed this a lot for the time I played it. It's not as addictive and re-playable as Diablo 2, and it doesn't offer the variety of environments and loot to be found in it's biggest competitor Torchlight 2, but it's still very well done. Most of the complaints I hear are either technical issues that have been resolved or players disagreeing with specific new mechanics. The worst of them is the introduction of the Auction House that makes it too easy to get much better loot by cash or gold purchase instead of earning it through gameplay like it was in D2 and like it is in Torchlight 2. The difficulty has clearly been tweaked around the idea that the game has to be challenging for people who will buy the best gear right at the beginning of Inferno, and that crippled the game's playability for those wanting to do it the old fashioned way. I think any ARPG fan will have fun up to Inferno difficulty regardless. It's just up to you if it's worth tolerating the problems after that point, but you've already played through the story multiple times to get that far.

I love this game! I was never a big Final Fantasy fan, but the music has been undeniably remarkable for the RPG industry as a whole. I am also a big rhythm/music genre fan so I was looking forward to what they would do with this title. It's inspiring me to go back to play the older Final Fantasy games that I missed years ago. You don't need to be a fan of Final Fantasy games to enjoy this, but be warned that you might become a fan based on the music and glimpses of classic JRPG on show here. It also adds a lot of replay value by gaining loot and levels every time you play a song, with the goal of beating the most enemies with the least mistakes in rhythm. Once beating a song on one level, there's an expert version and the ultimate version. Then you also have dark notes, DLC, unlockable FF characters, collectible digital cards, and more to keep you coming back. It's a great purchase overall and very entertaining.

It's a great Zelda game for the time it was originally released. I rented it to see how they improved upon it, and I really like how the 3D effect added to the experience (unlike some reviewers complaining about headaches). I would've preferred to see a new Zelda game and still looking forward to see a 3DS-only title, but this is a good remastered classic until a new Zelda arrives.

As another reviewer said, it's "criminally short", and that's an understatement. Within the brief time (a couple days) I owned this game, I had beaten the game several times seeking out every variation and path I could find. I guess if I had been a bigger fan of the original then maybe this would be more fun.

There aren't many classic games that I can go back to and enjoy playing many years later, but this is one of the select few. I spent so much time playing this as a kid, and not sure that I even beat it back then. Getting it for free with the purchase of the 3DS Kid Icarus was a nice bonus. I probably wouldn't have bought this classic otherwise so that's why I can only give it an average rating, but It's a great purchase if you're collecting and replaying the best classics from the NES.

I'm not big on games based entirely on nostalgia. I usually don't play old classics re-released so my opinion on this game will be pretty obvious. It's not for me. However if you like playing old classics, and enjoy funny references to tons of 80's pop culture movies, tv shows, etc. than you'll want this game. I admit it's pretty funny and well made where 8 bit games are concerned, but I rather spend my money on more recent releases. This is a very niche game for nostalgia junkies only. If you don't get all the nostalgia jokes than it's even worse.

Well, it's not a terrible game but isn't great either. As a boss arena type game with only a handful of bosses, you're not getting much content. Some of the bosses just take a lot of time to kill because of a very high amount of health. They aren't particularly difficult, but it's mediocre fun to learn how to defeat a boss the first time. It's not anywhere near as good as Shadow of the Colossus but I can see how it was probably lightly inspired by it. Sometimes it's a lot easier if you take on a boss with an ability earned from a previous boss kill, but it's not impossible to do without them. I bought this alongside Tokyo Jungle, and enjoyed the latter a LOT more. I think Malicious would have been awesome if there was areas leading up to the boss battle, or at least bigger areas to fight in. Starting off and playing in one small arena each battle gets a bit boring once you learn the tricks to kill the main boss. The stages aren't that unique so the scenery got old really quick. I'll probably go back and play it at some point to get better times or see if there are easier/quicker ways to defeat the stage, but I wouldn't be surprised if I forget I even bought it. It's just a bland forgettable experience overall.

I was really surprised by this game. Originally, everything I saw and read about it gave me the impression that it wasn't my type of game. I didn't like the graphics and the mechanics seemed simple and repetitive. In a way, this is still true but I found the addictive formula in the randomized challenges every time you start a new game (with saved previous accomplishments like unlocking other animals). Every animal has it's own strengths and weaknesses that really change the way you move around this image of future Tokyo. It's like a roguelike real-time animal sim. Although it's not perfect, I think it's a brilliant game because of the smaller details that make it well worth the money ($15 NA PSN). It just feels fun to play and there probably isn't any video or review that can really do it justice because it's a pretty unique and unexpected style of game. I know I won't be done with it until every animal is unlocked and even then, I will have plenty of reasons to go back thanks to the new challenges in each playthrough. It's not perfect, but I think it's an unique entertaining experience that any PS3 owner won't want to miss.

It's hard not to like this game. The levels are well done (and taken from all the other mario karts to date) and all of the races are fun to play hundreds of times with different shortcuts and tricks to each map. It's very entertaining gameplay long after you know the course like the back of your hand. That's a hard feat to keep something interesting after you've raced it to death over and over, but Nintendo definitely achieved that goal. There is a ton of unlockables, and an excellent multiplayer design on top of the time it will take you to win all the races in single player with a 3-star gold cup achievement. Even then, you'll get a whole new challenge unlocked in the mirror mode. The few side games included in the package are somewhat entertaining too, although I didn't really enjoy them personally and don't plan to spend any more time in them. I think I will enjoy hopping online for a race or try and beat the fastest times in the player ghost races for a long time to come.

I really didn't enjoy this game right from the start. I think I gave it a pretty good chance, investing a few days and many hours devoted towards getting a good feel for the story, characters, and design. I thought Tales of Symphonia was decent on GC, but this felt even older, slower, and terribly more uninspired then that. I was so uninterested in playing this after the first week that I had to return it, willing to take anything in it's place. Maybe you'll like it more if you are a big fan of the series and feel the need to play or own it as a part of the series. Unfortunately this title was so bad to me that I'll be staying away from the series from now on. Really disappointing to say the least.

This is a pretty interesting take on 3D puzzle design. I think I've grown a little tired of it at this point after buying it back in early 2012. It's not my favorite type of puzzle game, but it gives a decent challenge and the content is virtually endless since players can create and share their own levels. You'll never run out of content, but you might run out of interest after playing most of the levels available just in the core game alone. It just depends on your personal taste and worth the money to give it a shot either way. It's main idea is executed very well and will probably be something I return to play every so often when I'm bored.

This was another huge surprise hit for me. After seeing many reviews and videos, I knew tons of other people gave it very high praise but something about the character style bothered me and it looked very shallow. I bought it anyway and was happy I gave it a chance because it turned out to be a lot more fun then it looked (to me at least). I enjoy traditional Japanese music, history, and culture so that played a small role in it, but I've had fun with it every play since. Someone compared it to the several chopping/slicing/swinging mini games available on the Wii. It's essentially that same idea with a decent variation of tricks and timing. I love it and I think most gamers should definitely give it a shot.

I'm really happy with the gameplay for the price of this title. I used to be a big pinball arcade fan back in the day when they were still popular. I've also followed the growing genre of video game pinball ever since 3D pinball came with Microsoft Plus! 95 for Windows. Zen Studios is definitely one of the best at creating these fun virtual pinball machines and I am looking forward to their future releases. I highly recommend this if pinball is one of your favorites. My nephew on the other hand isn't much of a pinball fan and this didn't change his mind about it. So I recommend to just try a demo or read more about it before purchase if you're not a big fan of pinball in general.

This is one of the only games I really struggled with on the system so far. It's a great game and definitely one of the best on the system, but I eventually lost all patience with the ground control. I never got used to the horrible design of it, even though I worked out a passable method to at least give me a good chance of clearing every level. The problem was I didn't enjoy the feel of it and still managed to die because of how frustrating it was to play those sections. If there was an option to just exclude every ground section of the game, or at least put it on rails similar to the flight sections, this could've been one of my favorite games. It's excellent in every other way, especially in replay value and loot collecting. I can only hope if they come out with a #2 that they will address the awkward ground movement or exclude it from the game entirely. If the point of the game were to overcome the terrible control design, then I know whatever category this game falls in definitely isn't for me. It's a shame because I really wanted to like all the other great features. I'm even a big fan of the original and glad I at least got the 3D classic Kid Icarus. Just try before you buy.

I've had a lot of fun with this title and surprised at how long it has lasted me given that I'm a big Mario fan and played every title to date. I thought as a handheld relatively smaller title, I might burn through it fairly fast but there is a lot more to it. You get a pretty decent array of challenges from seeking out the 3 star coins in each level, plus the alternate version of the levels once you beat the original 8 worlds, plus beating all of it with both Mario & Luigi, and I forget what else is required just to unlock the last secret world on top of everything completed above. I'm still working on it and still enjoying it, just not as much as I did at first but it's holding up well against any of my newer games. I know I'll stick with it until I manage to unlock everything and I think it is my favorite Mario game to date. -1 point for originality though. I would love to see Nintendo come out with a new IP for a change to show off all these platformer variations they come up with on a regular basis, but it works and each Mario is still fun so it's a pretty minor complaint.

For me at least, this is as good as it gets towards an interactive multi-player (2 player only) experience. The music is beautiful and memorable. The environment changes just enough to stay interesting but not so much that the obvious connection between areas is lost and retains the curiosity to explore it further. The limited interaction between players reflects how people from anywhere can still communicate without words and work together, while the length of the game is also ideal because its not so long that you constantly get pulled away from your companion and not too short to feel like nothing more than a preview of a future game. It's well worth the $15 if you want this experience, but probably way overpriced for anyone that wants an actual traditional game. Pac-man has more 'game' than Journey, but this is a much greater experience than any other game I've played.

This game is incredible. I first played the Elder Scrolls series with Morrowind and thought it was mediocre. I just couldn't play or enjoy anything about Oblivion. It felt incredibly boring and uninspired after trying to get in to it a dozen times, so I gambled with getting Skyrim on the first day after watching a couple of the live streaming sessions online. It looked too good to pass up, and my gamble really paid off. Skyrim is way better than the last two, and I've never felt so truly immersed in an RPG like this before. I didn't experience a single bug or crash with the game, although there were minor flickering or clipping issues graphically. However, everything else from the sound and atmosphere, to the quality voice-over work and options of stuff to do and directions to go has redefined my interpretation of excellent game design for a true sandbox RPG. The only negatives leading me to rate it down to a 9 is for those who enjoy a linear story and direction, as I admittedly sometimes prefer also. The way it drops you at the end of the prologue/tutorial is pretty abrupt, but I had no problem just wandering off in a random direction and seeking out adventure. It found me as it turned out, allowing me to go in a few different directions depending on my whims, but for some it might not come as easily. Everything else is top notch and well worth the price of admission.

I found this version of Civilization surprisingly entertaining and simple in short sessions, for better or for worse. I eventually traded it in because it just felt like a 'lite' version of any other Civ game, but if you're a person with not a lot of time or interest in all the depth of the main titles, this is the perfect alternative. My favorites were Civ IV & V on the PC so they are the basis of my comparison. I've been able to play both of those versions for hours and hours in a single sitting. Weeks have flown by playing huge maps against computer or player opponents. With Civ:Revolution, that would never happen. The depth just isn't in this version to sustain long sessions, but the classic fun of Sid Meier and the Civ series is still well-represented and executed here in a much smaller dose if that is what you are looking for.

There have actually been a couple 'cooking' games on the market before but I think they were always limited to obscure Japanese imports that never saw an English or American release. This game does a pretty good job of doing the same thing those did; introducing some fun minigames based entirely around cooking. I don't know exactly what it is that makes these games so addictive, but I can highly recommend giving this series a try when you have a few extra dollars. At it's current price, it's a great deal for some casual fun when you are in the mood for it. I only rated it a 7 because honestly the premise is extremely basic, and it's almost a direct copy of the earlier import cooking games I had played, but it's still a fun experience for the price.

At a time in the gaming industry when so many games hold your hand throughout the whole experience with little to no risk involved, games like Demon's Souls are a breath of fresh air. I have to give the devs a lot of credit here for really nailing the difficulty curve to make it as hard as it can be without making it impossible or feel like you died because of stupid game design. This game just isn't that frustrating to me compared to other difficult games because it's so well done. I'm no beginner when it comes to difficult games. My favorites include the Prinny series, and old school games like Kid Icarus that were just brutal at the time, but part of that was some pretty irritating mechanics like simple jumping or not seeing what is coming. This is probably the first time I felt like every death was entirely dependent on my skill instead of dying to bad mechanics or stupid game design decisions. My character controlled exactly as I needed him to, but never took over for me when I made a mistake nor saved me from death when I deserved it. Every single death was productive in helping me get better at the game. It took me a ridiculous amount of hours just to beat the first level, but it was really really fun. It got to the point that every obstacle I overcame was laughably easy going through it the 100th time making the deaths feel much less daunting getting back to where I died last so I could at least recover dropped souls (like a currency from killing something). It's the kind of design that reinforced the feeling that you're always making progress, and that nothing is all that difficult if you give it time and patience. So to sum it all up, I think it's an incredible game in every way, unless the player prefers games with no death penalty and obstacles that are so easy you can go through entire levels in one try. if you like action RPGs, a little old-school difficulty, and great presentation, you gotta try this game!

Although I am rating this pretty high, I have to admit it deserves most of it's poor/mediocre ratings and reviews. If it didn't have the Lunar name and art style, I would've never bought it nor played it without swiftly returning it. However, the huge fan that I am ever since the original on Sega CD is loving this addition to the series. I can enjoy it primarily because it's obviously set in the same world with similar looking characters, so I suppose a lot of it's appeal is nostalgia with me. So if you are that serious of a die-hard fan that you buy games in a series just because of a brand name or relation to your favorite RPG of all time, this is worth the purchase. Oh, I should also mention I got it for $5 lol If it had been $10 or more, I probably could've lived without it.

I don't know if I can describe how bad this game seems to me. I've played it both solo and in groups, and it just bores me to death. I liked multiplayer brawling games like this in the likes of Powerstone back in the day, but the entire feel, control-scheme, environments, and mechanics of the wntire Smash Bros. series feels like a terrible joke. It's like Monty Python invaded Nintendo and came out with the most ridiculous fighting game parody ever conceived. Is that what people like about it? I don't know, but it's charm is definitely lost on me.

This is easily the best platformer I have ever played. It feels like it raises the bar to a level that I would never need another platformer again. In all fairness, I am not a big fan of platform games so I don't spend a lot of time with the genre, but this is just one of those quality games that goes above and beyond traditional expectations of a particular genre. The only real problem I have with it is the label. Do we really need another Super Mario? Please Nintendo, call it anything you want and make the main character look like anyone else but please move on from Mario/Zelda/Metroid. These same game mechanics could easily be used with a new IP to freshen things up a bit. It's getting to the point where I can't bare to look at another one of these three brands unless it comes with a 90+ consensus review score to help me see past the same increasingly irritating main character.

This is actually my first experience with Pokemon after my nephew coerced me in to the purchase to play with him. It's an interesting RPG with a depth I didn't expect from the long-running Pokemon series. It often draws me back in to finding pokemon that I haven't captured yet, and the story is interesting enough to where I've wanted to complete it to see how things come together. The problem is I've reached an area about halfway through after obtaining 4 badges and dozens of pokemon where the general combat and exploration is getting pretty monotonous. This might just be a game I never completely finish, but even only playing it halfway through, it was worth the purchase for me to enjoy trading with the nephew and finally seeing what the games are like for myself.

If you're the type of MMO gamer that enjoyed Lineage 2 or any number of other traditional Korean MMOs, then this is the next step up. Graphically-speaking, nothing else can match the beauty of this game compared to any other MMO. The effects and detail are astounding (I say this after patch 2.5 and playing on a machine that can max out every setting). Gameplay-wise, it falls in to some common ground with too many other MMOs in delivering very uninspired quests and backstory. The good thing is there is enough detail given to other mechanics in the game that the detail of some of the content doesn't matter as much as how much fun you have just playing your character and exploring the world. It's definitely not for everyone in this regard. In particular for me, combat felt a lot slower then I expected until you gain enough skills to be firing off constant combo moves (improves after level 20). It's also a very linear leveling experience due to a lot of restrictions in place with where you can go and how long you can fly (if at all). The mechanics for flight are a fun distraction to me, although often times you'll be restricted to 'gliding' instead. All in all, it's well worth a try and available with a free trial. After some disappointment from WoW:Cataclysm, this has become my preferred MMO at least until I get to try SWTOR and see if it's better.

Unfortunately this really feels like the beginning of the end for WoW. I liked the new content a lot at first, until a week passed and I was already 85. Then I decided to go back and start a couple new characters to see the new 1-60 content. A couple weeks later, I was reentering untouched old content for levels 60-80 that I didn't have any interest in replaying. The transition between Cata content and previous expansions is just awkward without any consideration or adjustment by Blizzard. There just wasn't enough content and fine-tuning with this expansion for veteran players, especially when the 1-60 game is now so ridiculously easy that it's just as easy and boring as watching someone else play it on youtube. Blizzard still manages to make some quest lines entertaining and funny, but these came few and far between this time around. The highlights were the new graphic effects, more challenging endgame instances, and the reorganization of the entire old world to make it flow better (technically this wasn't expansion content - vanilla players have access to all 1-60 content). The more prevalent cons of this expansion include the terrible transition now present for new players after level 60, everything outside of endgame dungeons/raids being pathetically easy, more graphical glitches then ever before, poorly made cutscenes, a very boring new profession (archaeology), and very little else to keep any veteran players interested beyond another month or two. I'm not sure if Blizzard is just losing their touch, or if the game is just reaching the age where no amount of quality content could help retain it's playerbase. Either way, this expansion came off as very mediocre at best.

Very strange game, but worth trying if you have access to a demo. It's very simple with only left/right movement and one jump/climb button. I think the atmosphere is really what makes it stand out from anything else. I've heard it's pretty short, but I felt it was well worth the $10 after playing the steam demo. I look forward to seeing what's in store for this odd, lost little kid in limbo.

The hardest thing about this game is by far and large adapting to the controls. I'm a very avid tennis player and fan of professional tennis, and I have to say from life experience that this is the most accurate tennis game I've ever played. The game advises to use slow and easy full swings (using the Wiimote Plus), and that takes some getting used to, but once you start to do it consistently you'll be able to plan your shots with remarkable precision. It is very important to return to a ready stance (as if holding the racket up in front of you) and keep the direction of your hit aimed at the sensor bar for the game to accurately pickup your movements. You can't play as if you're on a full size court. Instead, I played as if the length of my TV was the size of the singles court (22-inch) with the length of the TV case it stands on as the net length and baseline. At that point it became very simple to hit early when aiming left or hit later when aiming right. Every slice, topspin, flat shot, and degree of speed started registering completely naturally as I am used to hitting on the real court. However, even with that accuracy nailed down, you can definitely expect the game AI to make you work for every point, making every match very rewarding. I highly recommend any tennis fan to give this a try, and commit to the practice and experimentation required to get comfortable with the controls. It's well worth the effort!

I'm really surprised by so many of the mediocre/bad reviews... They just aren't accurate for everybody apparently. I have an ATI 6850 and it runs perfect with no lag, glitches, at highest settings. I haven't run in to any bugs or lag yet, and I really hate just about anything that might come between me and immersion. This game successfully mixes a similar feel to movement and controls from Call of Duty with some entertaining parkour-style moves and a futuristic utopia environment from Mirror's Edge, and similar class/appearance options and team objectives from Team Fortress to come up with one of the best shooters I've played in years. I also love the ongoing campaign of the two factions vying for control. My biggest complaint is how I don't see myself playing much else as long as this is available.